Page:Six Months at the White House.djvu/218

Rh of planting an immense field of potatoes, and, when they were sufficiently grown, he turned the whole herd into the field, and let them have full swing, thus saving not only the labor of feeding the hogs, but also that of digging the potatoes. Charmed with his sagacity, he stood one day leaning against the fence, counting his hogs, when a neighbor came along. 'Well, well,' said he, 'Mr. Case, this is all very fine. Your hogs are doing very well just now, but you know out here in Illinois the frost comes early, and the ground freezes a foot deep. Then what are they going to do?' This was a view of the matter Mr. Case had not taken into account. Butchering-time for hogs was 'way on in December or January. He scratched his head, and at length stammered, 'Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but I don't see but that it will be "root, hog, or die!'"

"Shortly afterward," he continued, "a reference was casually made to Colonel Hardin, who was killed in the Mexican War,—who at one time was a representative in Congress from Illinois; and this drew out a story from Stephens. 'On a certain occasion,' he said, 'when the House was in session, a dispute arose between Hardin and others of the Illinois delegation. as to the proper  pronunciation of the name of their State.  Some insisted it was "Illinoy," others as stoutly that it was "Illinois."  Hardin at length appealed to the venerable John Quincy Adams.  "If one were to judge from the